This morning we work up close to 9, a very late sleep in for us but we knew there was no rush today. This is a traveling day to reposition back to the mainland. The rain had stopped and even though there were clouds hanging around we did not feel threatened with rain – what a mistake!
The first task was to pack up all our things again from the campervan. This meant taking everything out and re-packing. When we came over we were 4 kg overweight and had to pay an additional $40. We are very aware of the consequence of not trying to distribute the weight and find ways to reduce what we are checking. For one thing we decided to wear our rain coats and hiking boots onto the plane. We figured we could cut the weight by at least 1 kg. We packed carefully which meant me moved everything into the camp kitchen and started from scratch.
Once we got that task done we looked at the time schedule and decided we had a couple of hours extra to spend at the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens. What an amazing place to walk through. This is spring here so many of the flowers were spring flowers and very showy. In some greenhouses there were large displays of tropical flowers. I enjoyed learning about the history of the development of the botanical gardens. The two interesting and surprising items was a theatre company doing some rehearsals on site and the carousel. Oh well, I will let the pictures tell the story of what we saw – and I should mention that this is only a small portion of what was on display.
We left the gardens at 1 pm to return the campervan. We had allowed ourselves plenty of time and we arrived early so had to wait for 1:30 for the agent to show up. Fortunately the business we dropped the van off with had a very comfortable waiting room and we were invited to sit and wait. The timing was set up to ensure we were not going to be rushed, and as usual when there is lots of time, everything goes without a hitch and quickly. So by 1:45 we were free of the van and assured the deposit would be returned.
Now we have to walk about 3 minutes to the location to pick up the shuttle bus which is booked to pick us up at 3:15…. Yep you guessed it, lots of time to waste. Well the business offered to keep our suit cases so we could wander around downtown so we headed out – but wait where did that rain come from? It started to pour on us, so we returned and sat in their waiting room until it was time to catch the shuttle bus. Thank you to E & M Mufflers.
Next we are off to catch the shuttle and from there to the airport. Now we got to the airport at 3:45 so we could be sure to get through check in and deal with a potential overweight issue. We managed to the checked luggage to meet the max requirements (not sure how but am sure it was careful planning on our part) so we avoided over weight charges. Way to go!!! Of course because we are so early and things are going so well we are in the boarding area for over an hour waiting to board – but no stress so no complaints.
We had planned that when we returned to Melbourne we would use the Metro system to get to the hotel. We had planned and knew how to do this. Again things went really well. We got all the buses and trains with no long waits and none missed. Now tomorrow when we pick up the campervan and I have to drive in the city I will again remember I know nothing about this city.
The only other thing that was great was our dinner. We waited until we got to the hotel and then went out for dinner. We wanted chicken but that place was closed so we went to a pizza place (we were there before) and we had a really good chicken pizza. When we went to pay for the meal the owner told us it was on the house and to enjoy our stay. What a blessing that was for a really long but successful day.
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